The church I belong to is expecting.

Finally, they are nearing that long anticipated day when the pastor search committee will present the man they believe God has led to us. Last Sunday morning, I made a few suggestions at the monthly men’s breakfast about this crucial time in our church’s existence and encouraged our guys to pass this along to other members.

1) This is no time to quit praying.

Over a year ago Pastor Tony Merida resigned to become assistant professor of preaching and dean of the chapel at our New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. One of the first acts of the leadership was to call the congregation to prayer.

Over the past several months, each Sunday morning, interim pastor Mark Tolbert has called a member of the search committee to the platform and led in prayer for their work.

Now that the committee has announced a date at which they will introduce the prospective pastor, there is a tendency on our part to feel a great sense of relief and thank God for answering our prayers, then to stop praying. But if anything, this is the time to intensify our intercessions.

I’ve heard that tightrope walkers find the most hazardous part of their routine to be the last step or two. They’ve been out on the rope, they’ve performed their death-defying act, and the crowd is cheering. A sense of relief floods over them as they step toward safety. This is the danger zone. Veterans learn to be vigilant and cautious at every point until they are safely on the ground.

2) This is the time to trust your leaders.

The system that most of our Southern Baptist churches employ calls for the candidate to visit the church for a weekend, during which he preaches on Sunday morning and meets with the membership for a time of sharing. He will be discussed in church conference Wednesday night, then the following Sunday the congregation will be asked to vote on this man as their pastor.

Invariably, someone will remark, “I didn’t have time to get to know him. One weekend is not long enough. I still have questions.”

The fact is no one but the search committee will be able to spend the required time to get to know him thoroughly. That’s why a church selects good people as its leaders, prays for them diligently, and trusts them to do their job.

3) This is the time to remind ourselves of some basic Bible teachings related to this subject.

a) When you call a pastor, you are not voting on the man. Ideally, you are expressing your sense of how the Lord is leading, what God is doing in this situation.

The Apostle Paul told the pastors of Ephesus “…the Holy Spirit has made you overseers” of the Lord’s flock. (Acts 20:28) Bearing that in mind, our prayer becomes, “Lord, show us your will.”

b) If you want to find flaws in this man, you can. He’s human and a sinner. He’s made his share of mistakes. (Romans 3:10,23 applies to him as well as to the rest of us.) The fact is, you don’t want a pastor who has led a perfect life; he would not know how to sympathize with stumblers and strugglers like you and me. Only a person who has seen his own sinful heart and been overwhelmed by the mercy of God can understand and appreciate and preach grace. No Christian needs a pastor unacquainted with grace.

c) If you want to make him fail, place sky-high expectations on him. “You’re God’s man for our church, so meet all our needs.” That most definitely is not God’s plan either for His pastors or His people. Our expectations should always be directed toward the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone. This frees the people in our lives–our spouse, our best friend, our pastor, whoever–to be and do as the Lord leads in their lives. “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want” (Psalm 23:1) can be said only of the Lord Himself.

d) Be patient with him. Some ministers can walk into a church and immediately size up the situation and begin to lead effectively. Others take longer to find their way and adjust their mindset. Personally, I was always in the latter group. Often, it took a year before I felt comfortable in the “fit” between the new church and myself. In some cases, a few members who had expected that “if he’s God’s man, it will be evident from the start,” gave up and left the church without giving me time.

The Apostle Paul says the leaders God sends are His gift to the church. (Eph. 4:11-12) We may assume therefore that since the Lord “loved the church and gave Himself for her” (Eph. 5:25), He knows which leaders we need and can be trusted in that decision. We church members ought to give thanks for His loving care and His wise gift, and to receive the minister as evidence of God’s continuing favor upon us.

Then, we must pray for this man as we’ve never prayed for anyone before. So much depends on him, he will need divine guidance and strength beyond himself.

Then, after we have prayed for him, we will need to do something even more difficult: expect nothing from him. Our expectations must be focused on the Lord and Him alone. Let us be grateful for everything beneficial we receive from the new pastor’s ministry. Let us be patient in order to allow him to grow and his ministry to blossom. Let us be faithful to our own God-given assignments, because we fill a role absolutely necessary to the success and effectiveness of the minister and the church: we are the Body of Christ in the world today, we are the light of the World, we are the salt of the earth. (I Corinthians 12:27; Matthew 5:13-14.)

An old preacher counseled a church that was in the process of calling a young man as their new shepherd. “Great churches make great pastors.” I’ve never forgotten the lesson, which seems exactly contrary to the expectations of most people.

Let us show the new pastor he has been sent to a great church, the one he will be looking back on with thanksgiving the rest of his life.